Featuritis and the Customer Experience

By shmula, Last Updated November 18, 2007

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The more I learn and practice ethnography and design-thinking, the more I notice subtle but incredibly frustrating experiences. For example, I had a frustrating experience with a faucet that was in the hospital room where our adopted baby girl, Mylie, was born. This faucet is an automated one — with a sensor. So, whenever an object passes the sensor, the faucet would turn on even if the intention of the human was not to use the faucet.

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A few facts about this faucet: this faucet was in the corner of the room, against the wall. It is a faucet that has a sensor, whereby an object would cross the sensor and then a signal would be sent for the faucet to expel water. I imagine the designers of this faucet designed this hospital faucet this way to encourage bacteria-free habits — that is, the sensor eliminated the need for a knob that both turns-on and turns-off the water. That is a good and charitable thought — but totally wrong. Here is a picture of the hospital faucet:

And another picture of the faucet:

Notice the faucet head with the sensor at the base. To the right of the base, notice the knob? What does the knob do, you ask. Answer: nothing. Whenever the faucet turned on, my first reaction was to turn the only-available knob, only to find out that the knob does nothing. Very frustrating.

Root Cause Analysis on “Why did the Faucet Turn on Unintentionally?”

Following Taiichi Ohno’s 5-Why’s, it is important to understand why the faucet turned-on when that was not the intention:

Why did the faucet turn on unintentionally?

Because whenever an arm or hand passed across the sensor photo-eye, the faucet would turn on.

Why would an arm or hand pass the sensor photo-eye?

Because we need to put or get our camera, jackets, or other belongings.

Why did we need to put or get our camera, jackets, or other belongings?

Because the only available counter in the room to place anything was beside the faucet.

So, we see from this quick and effective excercise that the root cause of unintentionally-turning-on-of-the faucet was that the only available counter-space was next to the faucet. Hence, whenever we needed to put or get our stuff, our hand or arm would cross the sensor and then the faucet would turn-on.

Practical Solutions

There are several practical solutions to the verified root cause. One simple and very practical one is to create more counter space, preferably away from the faucet and simultaneously eliminating the available counter-space to the right and left the faucet. Another practical solution is to revert back to the good ‘ol faucet with a knob that actually works. One variant of this “knob” is that it could be a foot pedal, thereby encouraging sanitized hands.

There are several that, I’m sure, you can think of. These are just a few that I came up with.

The True Tragedy of Featuritis

The real tragedy of poor usability of devices and products is that the user feels stupid. For a discussion, below is Kathy Sierra’s Featuritis Curve

As one walks the curve to the right, the user hits an inflection point where there is an equilibrium between the number of features and the user’s happiness. As the user continues that walk to the right, the user eventually gets to the point of what I call “user resignation” — where the user gives up, calls it quits, and blames self.

To some degree, I felt this way about the hospital faucet. Although the faucet didn’t have the complexity of features, it still behaved that way and I felt dumb that the “knob” wasn’t working like I expected it to work. Moreover, I felt dumb everytime the faucet turned on when I didn’t mean for it to turn on. The real tragedy of featuritis is that the user is burdened with feelings of self-loathing and self-blame. From a businesses perspective, this means that users are unhappy and will abandon the product or service.

Who’s Fault is it Really and The Customer Experience

Here’s what my good friend and fellow University of Chicago Alum, Aza Raskin, son of Jef Raskin (inventor of the Macintosh) says regarding Humane Design:

The main thing you have to remember—and please remember this, because it could be vital to your sanity—is that any problems you have with an interface are not your fault. If you have trouble using your microwave, it’s not because you’re “not good with technology”, it’s because the people in charge of designing the interface for that microwave didn’t do their job right. User interface design is incredibly hard, and carries with it a great deal of responsibility; this is something that’s taken quite seriously when it comes life-critical systems such as flight control software. But in today’s consumer culture, what should be blamed on bad interface design is instead blamed on the “incompetence” of users. Just remember that it’s not your fault.

A Crappy Faucet and A Cute Baby

The hospital is still there, probably with the same crappy faucet. But, I take with me a few things:

Mylie is healthy and is home. Mylie’s birth parents are also home now. I am thankful to them for choosing us to be Mylie’s parents.

The way interfaces, products, and services are designed have a profound impact on all of our lives.

Simple is best — Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) — this is a true principle.

There is still a lot of opportunity to do good in the world of products and services.

Comments

We have a mis-calibrated toddler puzzle that is supposed to make an animal sound when the correct peice is fitted into its space. It uses light-sensitive sensors in each puzzle space, the idea being that when the sensor goes completely dark, the correct peice must be in its place, triggering a “moo” or whatever. Now that one of the peices is missing (you have seven kids, too, so I trust you understand that this does happen), any time someone walks to close to the shelf on which the puzzle is stored we hear an animal sound. Another trigger is turning off the light at night.

In most elevators you have to search for the lobby button, and you are never quite sure if it is floor 1 or 2, or perhaps it has its own button. Usually it has a star next to the button, but the star is also usually worn off.

For elevator production, it is cheaper, more efficient & easier to reuse the existing round buttons for every floor of the hotel. Plus, the round button is fully functional and will get you to the lobby just as well as the fancy oval button. However, Mandalay makes $$ from 3 areas of the hotel – the restaurant, the spa, and the lobby (casino). The fancy oval buttons help their customers get to those 3 areas faster, and improve their overall experience.

This faucet discussion and other examples on this site remind us that poor user interface design creates a new burden for users in this technology-intensive era. Poor design and unnecessary complexity create incredible wasted time (and money) in our personal and professional lives. When we use interfaces or perform tasks infrequently we are much more likely to “forget” how to do them. For example, we are just finishing an addition on our house and I am noting all the things I need to “document” before the contractors leave. (1) There is no clear way to open the bulb compartment for a new light in our guest bathroom. (Something done maybe once every 3 years.) (2) The new ceiling fan in our bedroom has a summer/winter switch high on the fan (done twice a year) and don’t ever touch the chain on the fan, warns the electrician, because that will put you out of sync with the wall switch. And where are the instructions for re-syncing them? (3) Let’s not even talk about the $400 TV-sound system remote, which is already not working and has minimal documentation “because every system is customized.” I am now at the mercy of some high-priced support person to watch TV. I am currently working on a new book on a “A Guide to Household & Personal Knowledge Retention” (actual title will be sexier). I WOULD WELCOME YOUR STORIES AND EXAMPLES AND IDEAS OF THINGS TO INCLUDE. (e.g. Where is your elderly mother’s safe deposit box key? Where did you file X?, etc.) You can reach me at my website: http://www.LostKnowledge.com. Thanks. — Dave DeLong

About Shmula

First, let’s talk about why this website is useful for you. Like you, I’m battling to become better and trying to put a small dent in my corner of the universe. I write about the struggle that we all face to become better leaders, better workers, and better people. I write about Lean and Six Sigma principles, and how we can put them into practice at our companies, in our businesses, and how to improve the customer experience. Get started by learning about Lean >